Organic Universe

Organic is all the rage. Organic food, cosmetics, clothes and even organic medicines. But mostly it is food. There are speciality stores that sell only such items, while supermarket chains are stocking more of these products which are sold at a premium and come with certification that it is grown without chemical inputs and synthetic additives. But as Middle India discovers the virtues of naturally grown food, thanks to increasing awareness about the dangers of high pesticide use in conventional farming, it raises fundamental questions about Indian agriculture and the path it needs to take, especially in view of climate change concerns. Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood go to the roots of the organic phenomenon to understand the changes taking place in farmers’ fields and the policies that are driving organic agriculture, or holding it back

Last Updated: Sunday 07 June 2015

Organic Universe

It is a universe of its own—an expanding universe that has its own producers and consumers, its entrepreneurs, its markets, its passionate aficionados of scientists and evangelists. It is a universe that is governed by a different set of regulations and plays strictly by the rules, for the most part. In the politics of agriculture, its ideology is controversial since it goes against mainstream wisdom, almost heretical since it sets out to disprove the dominant chemical-driven theology of the past 60 years. We are talking about organic farming.

Why is organic farming controversial? At a fundamental level, it sets out to prove that you do not need chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilisers to produce adequate quantities of food. Organic farming works in harmony with nature by using simple techniques and material: recycled and composted crop waste and animal manure; crop rotation; legumes to fix soil nitrogen; encouraging useful predators that eat pests and natural pesticides; and a careful husbanding of water resources. The bottom line: increasing genetic diversity and conservation. It also means that no genetically modified crop is part of this ecosystem. The result: healthier farmers and risk-free food.

It is a philosophy that has caught the fancy of some unlikely players. Some have given up well-heeled jobs in the Silicon Valley, others a lucrative legal career. There are doctors who have turned into farmers, and management professionals into organic retailers. In all cases, there was a desire “to return to natural methods of cultivation sans chemicals” and to grow “real food that tastes like it used to”.

Among these remarkable men is Rajashekar Reddy Seelam, who literally crossed over to the other side: he switched from selling chemical inputs to farmers for a major company to becoming an organic cultivator himself.

Along the way, Seelam became a pioneer in retailing organic food and his store, 24 Letter Mantra, is now the top brand in the domestic market with an increasingly successful franchisee model, besides being a leading exporter. Sresta, the company he set up in 2004 to promote organic cultivation, works with over 8,000 farmers who cultivate around 60 crops on around 12,140 hectares (ha) spread across 12 states.

It uses the contract farming model. Seelam says Sresta’s scouting teams of trained agriculture graduates are careful to select farming tracts where soil and water contamination is negligible. Across India, groundwater contamination through leeching of pesticides has become a scourge after five decades of the Green Revolution theology that decrees huge lashings of synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides to improve yield from hybrid seeds.

“The thought that we should move away from the conventional wisdom first came to me in 1992 when I was aggressively promoting the chemical additives,” says Seelam. But it was not till 2004 that he took the plunge. Everyone told him it would be foolish to waste money on such an impractical idea.

Sresta, however, has stayed the course and notched up a turnover of Rs 55 crore. This may not be much and it underlines the problems of organic farming in the country—extremely small holdings, poor knowledge of scientific organic practices, certification that is both cumbersome and expensive for small holders, lack of markets and glaring lack of support from the government which, ironically, is footing a subsidy bill of around Rs 90,000 crore on fertilisers alone. Says G V Ramanjaneyulu, director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad: “The government simply refuses to see the wisdom of promoting a proven system of farming that will cost so much less, both for the farmer and the government, and a system that benefits the land and consumers.”

Ramanjaneyulu, former scientist with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), was responsible for launching the non-pesticide movement in Andhra Pradesh that has freed around 1.5 million ha from the grip of chemical pesticides. The state is now moving towards helping such farmers to get organic certification.

Different business models are being tried out to make such farming profitable for the smallholder. With entrepreneurial enthusiasm linked to a love of “clean farming”, interesting experiments have emerged. One is Dharani Suphalam, a primary producers’ cooperative society based in Sirsa, Haryana, which has brought together 1,500 farmers and is slowly linking them to the market (see ‘Innovative farm-to-home trail’). Another is the model used by Bengaluru-based Sahaja Samrudha Organic Producer Company that was set up in 2010 with authorised capital of Rs 10 lakh. It brings together 500 farmers through 40 groups. Its wholesale-cum-retail outlet in a central part of the city is a no-frills godown where bags of millets, rice and legume jostle for space with fresh mangoes and vegetables. But customers have no problem with its ambience since prices are reasonable.

“Our concept is different,” explains Somesha B, CEO of Sahaja. “We are working with farmers, helping them to convert to organic and provide marketing assurance. So we keep our margins low: 10-15 per cent mark-up for wholesale and 20-25 per cent for retail. In any case, the profits go back to the farmer since they have shares in the company.” Turnover last year was Rs 52 lakh, but Sahaja is certain revenue will double this year.

One of the biggest grassroots success stories is of Morarka Foundation which, with its 100-plus project locations covering 19 states, has brought around 100,000 farmers under the umbrella of Morarka Organic. This has helped it understand the different agro-climatic problems and gain expertise in handling over 130 crops/products which, it says, form its core portfolio and are offered both as farm grade as well as processed and in retail packs that are sold under the Down to Earth brand (no connection with this magazine).

There are others like the feisty H R Jayaram who gave up a prosperous law practice to become an organic farmer-cum-retailer. He has set up what is probably India’s first organic hotel, The Green Path, in a Bengaluru suburb. Jayaram’s aim is to fire others with his passion and “to create replicable models that will inspire more people to take up organic”. Sahaja and enthusiasts like Jayaram have held regular organic food melas, which has helped make Bengaluru India’s undisputed organics capital. Restaurants, coffee shops and stores like Simply Organics run by another farming buff Govind Kabadi make for zesty organic profile for this city. Aiding this is the state government which gives Karnataka farmers a big helping hand in finding outlets for their produce.

But the corner organic store with crowded shelves is not the dominant image of organic retailing. The familiar milieu is the chic store in tony localities that sell beautifully packaged products that come with all kinds of certification—from NPOP (National Programme on Organic Production), which is the Indian standard, to those of the EU and the US. Here premiums are high since products come through many layers of marketing. The other place where one is bound to find such products are supermarket chains like Chennai-based Spencer’s which has a national footprint. Says a spokesperson for the chain: “We are a food-first multi-format retailer and sell a wide range of brands like 24 Letter Mantra, Down To Earth, Pro Nature and Pro Organic.” Growth has been phenomenal. Starting with two brands in 2006, Spencer’s organic category has grown by 300 per cent in last three years. Besides, its offerings which were restricted to commodities like cereals, pulses and spices, are spilling into a wide assortment from breakfast cereals to snacks and soups. For those who have the money, such outlets are a cornucopia of natural goodness.

Delhi-based Fabindia, which caters to the well-heeled and trendy customer, is a leading purveyor of organic foods, its elite stores across the country stocking carefully selected products. Ashima Agarwal, who heads the organic foods division, is unwilling to disclose the amount of business this segment brings in, but says: “Though small, organic foods are witnessing growth in terms of customer base and consumption. We started with 70 products and today offer more than 300 products and are still growing.” For William Bissell, Fabindia founder, the foray into organics from clothes, furnishings and traditional crafts was inspired by a book Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe, a 1971 bestseller which advocated ecologically sound production of food. “Then when I was in the US, I worked on the organic farm of Gordon Ridgeway who was a purist and influenced me greatly,” says Bissell. Although he would like to keep fresh produce in his stores, there are too many logistical issues.

Logistics are critical to the success of organic farming and the reason such produce is far too expensive for the ordinary consumer. For instance, products sold by non-profit Navdanya are more expensive than similar items that are not organic. Founder Vandana Shiva has an explanation: “For me, organic farming is about livelihood and about sustainability and justice. When a farmer practices organic agriculture, he knows how to sustain his farm with natural resources; he is able to feed himself and his family; takes care of earth by giving natural resources back in forms of bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides without polluting the environment.” Naturally, all this comes at a price since the government offers no help at all.

The booming growth in organic foods may well spell hope for the small farmer. With health-conscious and cash-rich customers ready to pay the premium for organic food, the market is expanding in dramatic ways. High-end, imported organic has also come to India. The first such is businessman Dilip Doshi’s Organic Hauswhich which has opened in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. For Doshi it is business pure and simple; he does not claim to promote organic because it is better for the environment or for the farmer. Every product in his uber-luxury stores is imported from Germany and Austria.

“Mine is a concept store. It tells the story of the evolution of globally benchmarked products. You can close your eyes and say this is organic. I could not find any genuine organic foods in India,” declares Doshi. That could come as a crushing blow to all the organisations, farmers and activists who have struggled to put Indian organic on the global map. But fortunately in Europe and the US, which together account for 96 per cent of the market, India’s credentials are respected even if it accounted for just a fraction of the US $59 billion global market for certified organic food and drink. India’s exports in 2010-11 totalled just Rs 550 crore, according to Manoj Kumar Menon, executive director of the International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture or ICCOA, which is a knowledge centre for all facets of organic agriculture and also helps provide market linkages to all those engaged in organic agriculture.

ICCOA is a crucial link to the market with its international trade fair Bio Fach India which draws over 100 global companies and thousands of visitors to its annual event. Menon is confident that India will become a significant player in the next four years when production is expected to touch Rs 4,000 crore, a huge leap from the current Rs 675 crore. By then, the global trade is expected to cross US $104 billion in 2015 at an estimated annual rate of 12.8 per cent. On the global organic map, India is a speck; it does not figure in the list of the top 10 countries. According to data released in June 2012 by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture of Switzerland, there was a total of 37 million ha of agricultural land that was organic in 2010. In addition, the organic universe had another 43 million ha of non-agricultural areas, up from 41 million ha in 2009.

What was India’s share? It had 0.6 million ha under cultivation, another 0.18 million ha under conversion along with wild area of 3.56 million ha. IFOAM statistics also put the total number of organic farmers worldwide at about 1.6 million, with the largest number, a whopping one million of them, in India. This is where our organic story gets truly interesting. In fact, the slight dip in organic agriculture area in 2010 was on account of India which reported the loss of 0.4 million ha of organic cultivation. But that trend is reversing. Says A K Yadav, director of National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF): “The declining trend has been reversed and the area under certification process during 2011-12 is likely to be more than one million hectares.” He also makes the point that all the statistics with NCOF are for the area which is registered under certification process. “There is no reliable data on farmers doing organic but have not opted for certification.”

In all probability it means that organic cultivation is more widespread than estimated, although the Ministry of Agriculture is doing its best to undermine this through its various programmes. For instance, it has allowed its flagship scheme Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to be used by states to convert tribal areas or the organic wild centre to conventional farming through the provision of free hybrid seeds in kits that also contain chemical pesticides and fertilisers. There is also the looming threat of climate change and its impact on agriculture.

While Krishi Bhavan has finally asked Ardhendu Sen, a former bureaucrat now with TERI, to draft a policy document for the promotion of organic agriculture, farmers are deciding on their own what’s in their best interest.

Innovative farm-to-home trail

WHEN 29-year-old Sunil Gupta (left) gave up his job as operations manager with a European GIS systems manufacturer in 2001 to try his hand at organic farming, it seemed a romantic idea. He would grow safe, wholesome crops without chemical pesticides and fertilisers on his 14-ha farm in Sirsa, Haryana. It turned out to be a nightmare. “The first year I failed miserably. I sought help from the Haryana Agriculture Department. But they had no clue what I was trying to do.”

Gupta travelled across Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan to know how agriculture was practised before the Green Revolution, which advocated generous lashings of synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides. Gupta began farming using manure and compost and biodynamics—sowing and planting as per astronomical calendar. The yield dropped, but the soil started regenerating and the food was safer to eat.

Gupta then got neighbouring farmers to turn organic cultivators. For the manure, he hit upon an innovative idea. Gaushalas, run by local communities as a relgious duty, had no money to feed the cows and found disposal of dung a problem. He persuaded the farmers to accept feed for the cows in return for the dung. Now, there is enough manure for the 1,214 ha belonging to the 1,500 small farmers who are members of Dharani Suphalam, a primary producers’ society.

Dharani Suphalam produces about two tonnes of fruits and vegetables daily. How does this reach consumers? Gupta, as president of the society, ties up with top organic stores in Gurgaon, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Dharani Suphalam has a marketable surplus of 1,000 tonnes of wheat, 500 tonnes of rice and 100 tonnes of mustard oil. Talks are under way with exporters but are yet to translate into contracts.

But prospects are improving with players like Ashmeet Kapoor (right) who left an electrical engineering job in the US. Kapoor, 26, is the last vital link in getting fresh veggies into homes. He has set up I Say Organic, a home delivery service that works in south Delhi and Gurgaon. Its one cold store and four vans handle about two tonnes of produce daily from Dharani and producers in Himachal Pradesh. The vans ferry veggies on orders placed on the company’s website or by phone. Prices are high but then, Kapoor says, he is giving farmers 25 per cent premium over mandi prices.

The Centre has no policy on organic farming but 10 states are promoting it

Manoj Kumar Menon of the International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA), a knowledge centre on organic agriculture, has an interesting story to relate on how the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) views organic farming.

Some years ago, ICCOA proposed a research study to prove the scientific validity of organic agriculture since mainstream scientists were dismissive of this system of growing crops without synthetic fertilisers and chemicals. “Organic agriculture in a holistic sense is sustainable agriculture but ICAR is not ready to accept it,” says Menon.

The project proposal that was put to ICAR’s National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) was to test organic systems in different agro- climatic zones and with different crops (cereals, pulses, spices etc). The outlay was initially Rs 42 crore but it was whittled down to Rs 12 crore. The proposal cleared four committees, including technical, and finally in February 2008 reached the then director general of ICAR Mangala Rai.

“A distinguished scientist Tej Pratap Singh (vice-chancellor, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology) had just started making the presentation. But after just the third slide Rai observed, ‘I do not see any science in organic agriculture’.” That, in fact, sums up the general attitude of mainstream agriculture scientists whose thinking has been shaped by the late Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, who was a firm believer in the use of synthetic fertilisers to push up crop yields. Borlaug had termed as “ridiculous” the idea that organic farming was better for the environment because it gave lower yields and therefore required more land to produce the same amount of food.

Supporters of organic point out that on the contrary the shift from expensive high-input agriculture to knowledge-intensive practices is much kinder to the environment with the emphasis on using naturally available resources (green manure and cowdung), biopesticides, crop rotation and water conservation. But almost everything that the Ministry of Agriculture and ICAR’s vast network of public research institutions does undermines sustainable farming.

Official policies are stuck in what India’s leading authority on biomass, Om P Rupela, terms, “the NPK mindset of mainstream scientists”. NPK stands for chemical elements nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that are commonly used in fertilisers. “They calculate that the same amount of synthetic NPK that is used in conventional agriculture has to be replaced by an equivalent amount of biomass nitrogen and then claim that India doesn’t have those quantities.”

Community managed sustainable agriculture (CMSA) is a programme that fits all needs

—D V RAIDU, DIRECTOR, CMSA

“But the science of biology doesn’t work that way,” says Rupela, former scientist with ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) who conducted a long-term experiment on low cost agriculture. “Organic is a different paradigm. The idea is to nurture soils through micro fauna which is there in large numbers, and macro fauna such as earthworms.” Nature has hundreds such but little research has been done on them.

Fortunately, there are open minds in the agriculture departments of states which, unlike ICAR, see merit in organic farming. At least seven states have sought ICCOA’s help to set up organic farming clusters for specific crops. The package includes capacity building, training on organic cultivation and help with certification and market linkages. An analysis of state agriculture policies by Down To Earth shows that 10 states have clearly defined policies for organic farming. These are Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram. Of these, Uttarakhand (10 mountain districts), Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram have declared their intention to go 100 per cent organic.

A K Yadav, director of National Centre of Organic Farming, the Ministry of Agriculture’s nodal agency, says it is difficult to say which of these states has the best organic policy but he zeroes in on Uttarakhand and Sikkim as the best. “As far as taking the movement to the people is concerned, Sikkim is more successful. But if we are looking at market facilitation, networking of farmers and ensuring that farmers get a premium, Uttarakhand is ahead.”

Over 30 certified organic producer groups have come up in Uttarakhand in less than a decade, with farmers producing a range of organic commodities like amaranthus, Basmati rice, finger millet, maize, wheat, turmeric paddy, ginger, soybean, rajma (kidney bean), medicinal and aromatic plants and different types of pulses. More villages are waiting to be certified, all thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board (UOCB).

Binita Shah, senior manager, UOCB, says, “Our strategy is focused on clusters for a particular crop because it helps with group certification which brings down the costs considerably. It also helps to reduce transportation cost which is one of the biggest challenges for farming in hilly areas. The other, of course, is ensuring a market for organic produce.” UOCB was set up by the state in 2003 to encourage organic agriculture, primarily in its hill districts.

A signal success story here comes from Haridwar where sugarcane farmers under the aegis of Bhartiya Kisan Club (BKC) have started an organic sugar manufacturing unit. The club, formed in 2009, has 324 members from the nearby areas. Claimed to be India’s first certified organic sugar mill, it supplies major retailer like Sresta’s 24 Letter and supplies often run short. Kartar Singh, president of the club, says, “Farmers associated with us have around 455.66 ha of land where we grow organic sugarcane. To keep farmers’ interest, we have ensured two things. First, we give farmers Rs 10-20 premium per 100 kg of cane and the other is cash payment on delivery of crop.” This ensures that BKC is never short of raw material.

We focus on clusters for a particular crop as it helps bring down the cost

—BINITA SHAH, SENIOR MANAGER, UOCB

One of the interesting learnings from this pioneering venture is that cost of organic cultivation is much lower than that of the conventional method and that sugar recovery is much higher from cane grown with biopesticides. “This more than offsets the 15-20 per cent drop in sugarcane yields. Besides, buyers give us a premium, too,” says Singh. This season BKC has produced around 900 tonnes of organic sugar but expansion is difficult because subsidised agriculture credit is not available. Commercial banks and NABARD have refused to extend any credit to this sugar mill which has a crushing capacity of 25 tonnes per day, set up entirely with the farmers’ investment.

Uttarakhand is the third largest organic state with over 32,000 ha under organic or under conversion, bringing under this tag over 47,000 farmers. Neighbouring Himachal Pradesh has 48 clusters covering 5,800 farmers but has a much larger area under organic farming at 631,902 ha. In fact, in our view Himachal Pradesh has an arguably better policy. The Department of Agriculture provides assistance of Rs 1,500 per farmer for three years to facilitate documentation, database management, training and capacity building, apart from help with certification, market linkage and value addition. They also get Rs 3,750 per cluster for setting up vermicompost units and so far 376,000 such units have come up in the state.

For wider diffusion, the state has involved local NGOs and KVKs or the agriculture extension service centres to promote organic farming. One example of how well this policy works comes from Khakrola village (population: 1,200) where farmers, again, mostly women, have made the difficult switch to organic cultivation over a three-year period. But their hard work has been repaid. The 150 farmers have actually improved their yield—ICAR, please note—and enhanced the marketability of their grains, fruits and vegetables. And these are really small farmers, each with a holding of 60-100 bighas (1 bigha=2,500 sq m). The Khakrola experiment is part of a Rs 1.5 crore model project initiated in 2003 by the M R Morarka Foundation in tandem with the Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Department.

The critical issue here is finding customers for such hard-won produce. Says Rajashekar Reddy Seelam, managing director of Sresta Bioproducts of Hyderabad, the leading domestic retailer: “Markets must provide the incentive for the switchover to organic, but the difficulty is in getting either regular supplies and for assured amounts.” On the other hand, the comfort is that in two drought years, 2008 and 2011, organic farms performed much better than conventional ones because they were more resilient to climate stress, he points out.

Karnataka, the first state to announce an organic farming policy in 2004, is carrying forward research to strengthen organic farming. Biocentre, a certified 17-ha spread of plantations and nurseries, is developing workable models of organic production systems with medicinal and aromatic plants as one of the components. K Ramakrishnappa, additional director in the horticulture department, who looks after organic agriculture, says that one of the more practical initiatives the state has taken is to set up the Jaivik Krishik Society that clubs 47 farmers’ groups and is the nodal agency to facilitate group certification and marketing. It has also set up a Jaivik Mall that offers ample space for farmers wanting to sell their produce directly to consumers.

Another remarkable experiment that Down To Earth would like to highlight is the non-pesticide management (NPM) initiative of Andhra Pradesh. This has freed an impressive 1.5 million ha and 1.5 million farmers from the tyranny of chemicals through a community managed sustainable agriculture (CMSA) initiative. Interestingly, the initiative was launched by the Andhra Pradesh Ministry of Rural Development and not by the Agriculture Department. The fundamental objective of CMSA is to provide healthy food, healthy crops, healthy soil and a healthy life to farmers by ensuring food security locally.

The CMSA philosophy does not necessarily endorse organic as the ultimate objective although both work towards the similar objective of eliminating chemical inputs. Explains D V Raidu, director, CMSA, “Our mandate is to raise the incomes of small farmers, eliminate poverty and liberate ourselves by unlearning the practices of the past. Organic agriculture, on the other hand, leads to tunnel vision since its driving force is only the premium.”

Raidu’s contention is that organic market dynamics are not in the farmer’s hands—true enough, since there are widespread complaints that retailers and NGOs are ripping off the growers—and, therefore, the focus should be on “sustainable, viable and remunerative agriculture”. He also asks why “if organic is so good, it so minuscule? Besides, the premium is earned only on scarcity of supplies.”

However, CMSA, he hastens to add, is ready to help farmers with certification if they want it. “The choice is the farmer’s. The best part of CMSA is it is a programme that fits all needs.” In fact, the groundwork is done to assist farmers with the Participatory Guarantee System certification, a cost-free way of providing quality assurance. But Raidu takes pride in the following statistics: 124 villages declared pesticides-free, 26 villages deemed organic. Not a bad record at all, although the programme only seeks to cut synthetic fertiliser by half, not bar it.

For the Union government, CMSA offers a silver lining: it is saving Rs 1.2 crore on fertiliser subsidy, while farmers are spared an expense of Rs 1.47 crore by eliminating pesticides and cutting fertiliser use.

Go to a meeting of organic farmers discussing the problems they face and usually there will be unanimity on one issue: they all hate APEDA. The reason: APEDA is the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, under the Ministry of Commerce, which set the norms for certification to help organic products find market abroad. Those norms were based on the European Union standards, said to be the toughest in the world.

The third party certification (TPC) is necessary for global trade in organics and India has 22 certifying agencies accredited by APEDA. But this kind of certification comes at a huge cost and requires a huge amount of documentation. It poses a serious challenge for India’s organic farmers, most of whom are small landholders with just about an acre (0.4 hectare) per family and are, for the most part, illiterate. How do they cope with the requirements of certification which are mandatory for earning the organic premium? The more serious impact is that it would stop the organic movement in its tracks.

Fortunately, alternative methods to guarantee the organic integrity of products have been developed for small domestic producers, known as the participatory guarantee system or PGS. The main characteristics of PGS are: low cost, involves minimal paperwork and makes farmers responsible for the success and integrity of their group. There are no intermediaries since the group will be supreme, with members responsible for conducting inspections of each other’s processes and guaranteeing the integrity of the product.

The PGS symbol is a familiar sight on a wide range of products from the Caffea from Keystone Foundation, Nilgiris, to peanut oil from Dharani of Timbaktu Collective of Anantpur district in Andhra Pradesh, spices of Organic Farming Association of India (OFAI) in Kerala and gur from OFAI in Maharashtra or Uttar Pradesh as well as fruit products from Grassroots Foundation in Ranikhet, Uttarakhand. Soon it will be seen on chillies from Uttarakhand. But while PGS works well in the domestic market, what happens to those who want to tap the export market?

According to NGOs and activists who work with marginal farmers, the fundamental flaw is that organic trade is governed by the commerce ministry. “The biggest drawback is that organic trade is the turf of the Ministry of Commerce and not the Ministry of Agriculture. As a result, it has become more market driven,” says Vandana Shiva of Navdanya. For her, “Organic is essentially a relationship between farmer and earth where they know and take care of each other.”

That may be so, but companies and export houses appear to have no problem with TPC which they say is inevitable for global trade. Says Rajashekar Reddy Seelam, managing director of Sresta Natural Bioproducts, a leading exporter: “The most important aspect here is the trust of the consumer, which has great potential to transform the market and more so the lives of farmers. We should not dilute the standards but make the process simpler.”

At the other extreme is the view that the differential norms for exports should be scrapped. Reflective of this attitude are the views expressed by Miguel Braganza, formerly with the OFAI which helped formulate PGS-India norms. He says: “TPC agencies operating in India are paid for at the poor farmer’s cost in the belief that export is the best policy. In actual practice, people in Europe eat healthy food grown in India and other Third World countries and collect the certification fees or ‘royalty’ thereon from the franchisee, while we eat food poisoned by pesticides from European manufacturers and pay royalty on the poisons, too!”

Gokul Patnaik, former head of APRDA who was instrumental in setting the norms, admits that the standards set by the body do discourage organic farming by small farmers. “But these regulations were not meant for the domestic market when they were formulated. Now is a good time to look at what we want from certification, which is an endorsement of trust.”

But for many farmer groups PGS itself is not working. Sunil Gupta, president of Dharani Suphalam, a primary producer society representing 1,500 organic farmers, says he would like to switch to PGS but complains that PGS is becoming excessively bureaucratic and is taking far too long to respond to applications. PGS is governed by National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF) which comes under the Ministry of Agriculture and Dharani Suphalam’s application has been lying with it for the past eight months.

The group’s production is now certified by two TPC agencies and Gupta says the process is harrowing. “We have to maintain 345 records per farmer per season and it is a huge burden on our smallholders.” Together, the two agencies charge about Rs 2.5-3 lakh per year apart from another Rs 1 lakh each for inspections and sample testing. “If issues of certification are not resolved, it will be difficult for farmers’ groups such as ours to remain viable.”

A spokesperson for TPC, however, puts the ball back in the farmer’s court, saying: “Farmers should do their economics properly. The cost of certification should not exceed 0.5-1 per cent of their turnover. Every service, after all, comes at a cost.” According to him, farmers do not have to go for certification just because they are in organic farming; what they need is a good business plan. His defence is that certification agencies do not make big money because of various limitations and because “ultimately it is a volumes game”.

NCOF director A K Yadav says PGS in India is still in its nascent stage. “We are working on modalities of it and we need to create awareness about it.” He concedes that the certification normally takes two years and because “farmers are unaware about the intricacies when it comes to organic, this period extends to three years.”

But even if the certification is resolved, there are more problems ahead. Shiva says the Foods Safety and Standards Authority of India rules are also a hindrance to the growth of organic farming. “There are stringent rules for organic food products that will burden producers. Organic pulses, wheat and just about everything will require AGMARK, whereas normal produce will not need any certification or quality marks. “It is odd that organic producers have to prove their innocence, while those who sell food laced with chemicals and fertilisers are enjoying a free run in the market.”

There certainly is something about organic farming. It gets some people all charged up. So captivated are they by the idea of growing food in a safe and ecologically sound way that they abandon lucrative professions and well-paying jobs abroad to wallow in the good earth and stuff like cow dung, mulch and vermicompost. Nothing, it appears, is so satisfying as returning to farming, the natural way. Lawyers and doctors with a roaring practice, information technology professionals working in the US, coal merchants with a tidy business, management experts employed by multinationals—these are some of the organic buffs we came across as we researched this cover story.

Start with Manjunath Pankkaparambil, an ex-IT professional who runs Lumiere, the landmark organic restaurant in Bengaluru’s Martahalli suburb. A former consultant with Oracle and SAP in the US, Manjunath became acquainted with Ambrose Kooliyath, whom he describes a Gandhian activist and a farmer since 1997, during a visit home (Kerala). They decided to take up organic farming together and bought about four hectares (ha) in Munnar to grow English vegetables. That was in 2003. Then in 2009, the partners opened Lumiere in Kochi and a year later in Bengaluru.

The Kochi restaurant was closed earlier this year because there were not enough footfalls and sourcing was a problem. But the large (8,000 sq feet) Bengaluru restaurant-cum-store with 120 covers is open for business, and doing fairly well, says Manjunath. Clearly, the problems of running a fully organic restaurant—95 per cent of the ingredients are certified—are immense. Logistics of getting in fresh supplies meant that the Munnar farm did not work too well. Besides, it was difficult to get genuinely organic, free-range chicken (not injected with antibiotics and growth hormones) and eggs. So a 0.8 ha farm was bought in Bengaluru itself, one half for rearing chicken and the other for leafy greens. Other items are sourced from nearby farms—one of them run by a doctor in Udhagamandalam. The organic crowd is pretty good at networking and form close alliances both for business and pleasure.

Lumiere tries to get as close to fine dining as possible, although it is primarily a Kerala seafood menu. Is the restaurant bringing in profits. Not yet, although Rs 2 crore was invested in setting it up and regular cash infusions to keep it running. That does not seem to bother Manjunath, 46. “I sat 16 years in an office as a software professional. Now I am doing something that invigorates me, and it is environmentally sustainable.”

That is the usual story with such entrepreneurs, most of whom came into the organic field seven to eight years ago. Hardly any of them are making profits and yet far from being discouraged they intend to keep at it. The intrinsic value of what they are doing is enough recompense for them, they maintain. H R Jayaram, 53, also of Bengaluru, is in a different category because the money he made from his earlier legal profession allows him ample scope for trying out interesting new projects. A lawyer who returned to his roots by taking up farming, Jayaram, founder of Green Path Eco Foundation, started two organics stores, initially called Era Organics, to offload the fresh produce from his farm. That led to sourcing of other items from different sources to give customers a full range of household supplies. The difference is that in Jayaram’s store—one was shut down—customers will chance upon food not found elsewhere: candied papaya, millet sweets and other delicacies prepared at his farm. “I love what one can do with food, naturally grown food, and I like sharing it,” he says with his characteristic wide smile.

A year after the first store opened, Jayaram set up what appears to be the country’s first organic hotel. What makes a hotel organic? “Everything in Green Path is chosen with care. All amenities are green, the food is locally grown organic, the herbs are plucked from the hotel garden and the fabric we use are mostly organic and made with natural dyes. Even our soap and shampoo are organic,” he says with pride. The hotel, in a residential area of Bengaluru, has a soothing green ambience while its special menus are a treat for vegetarian food lovers.

Jayaram’s idea is “to create products and business models that will inspire others to follow the green path”—some of his friends have followed him in running organic farms—and to create strong links between consumers and their food. Organic farming, he firmly believes, changes one’s way of thinking, changes one’s life. “You learn to respect your soil, your water, your seeds. You take a holistic view of nature and life.”

Woofing is a great way to learn and strengthen the green network

—MARTINE DUGUE, WORLDWIDE OPPORTUNITIES ON ORGANIC FARMS

The hotel was started with the idea of becoming a meeting place for like-minded people, and that it certainly has. On any given day, you will find environmentalists holding a meeting there, visitors from abroad apart from the normal complement of hotel guests, “many of whom have become friends.” One such is Martine Dugue from Nantes in France who first came to Jayaram’s Sukrushi farm outside Bengaluru in 2008 as a Woofer or a volunteer with Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Usually Woofers go from one part of the globe to another to share sustainable ways of living by working as volunteers on organic farms. They are given hospitality in exchange of labour.

“I was so impressed with the boundless energy and spirit that I return here every year for five months to help Jayaram with his many projects,” says Martine, who cares for mentally challenged persons when she is back home. “Thanks to him I’ve met so many green activists and learned about millets and their wonderful qualities.” Calling it “a food for the future” when climate change will impact production of less durable crops, Martine has set up a Millets Collective to popularise and grow this cereal in Europe. “Woofing is a great way to learn and strengthen the green network,” she says.

There are two kinds of people in the business: one, like me, are in it for the joy of it, others are for profits

—GOVIND KABADI, OWNER, SIMPLY ORGANICS

Organics hasn’t been such fun for Govind Kabadi, a lawyer-turned-coal merchant who found that farming was all he wanted to do, farming the old way, without chemical pesticides and fertilisers. After his more than 10-ha Gowramma Honnusa Kabadi farms in Uddichikanahalli got going, he opened Simply Organics a store that stocks 250 organic and natural products. Kabadi, 55, travels across the state looking for fresh products to add to his range. Although the store is not making profits, its owner has no intention of downing shutters. Why is that? The answer is predictable: “It’s my passion,” he says.

Kabadi offers an interesting insight. According to him there are two kinds of people in the organics business. “One kind, like me, is in it for the joy of it; the other is for high profits.” But since he needs to make a living he is tying up with Hyderabad-based Sresta to turn Simply Organics into a large, plush shop that will stock the company’s 24 Letter Mantra branded products. It will boast a live kitchen with a graduate chef and offer an organic lunch meal apart from fresh bakery items. Although Rajashekar Reddy Seelam, founder of Sresta and its successful brand, appear to be from different ends of the spectrum, they have something in common. Both share a love of organic farming and the products that come out of it.

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Mischa Popoff, an IOIA

Mischa Popoff, an IOIA Advanced Organic Inspector in a book "Is it Organic?" said that the main problem is related to the bodies that approve the logos, for organic or fair trade foods. Its an open secret that the industry is characterised by widespread bribery and shadowy business deals. Farmers and indigenous people are being lied to, promised the earth and stolen from.

This report in Down To earth confirms what we all know. The premium attached to organic food is not for the masses but for the small affluent pockets within the country and export economies who already have agriculture surpluses.

The sustainable agriculture story must be written about constantly like this piece in DTE. These "good" stories are essential so all of us realise that we can make a change as consumers and producers. However, while cities and towns are seeing a spurt in restaurants and organic shops the livelihood story of small and marginal farmers is still bleak. From personal experience working with small and marginal farmers to promote agroecological practices in farming, it is evident that (i) there is no market incentive for small farmers located far away from cities and towns to move towards sustainable farming (ii) even those who are located proximal to towns and cities are not able to access supply channels to the organic stores (iii) small farmers, unless they are organised into collectives by NGOs, do not have the resources to leave their farms and convey their produce to markets. If the "organic revolution" or rather the "sustainable farming" revolution is to really make a difference to the livelihood of the small producer and therefore the land and water resources, significant State support in the form of support for inputs (seed, labour, microirrigation, storage areas etc.) and of course well organised market links must be provided. Otherwise, I am afraid it will remain yet another example of environmental elitism which is increasingly emerging as the the new "caste system".

Mischa Popoff writes about the US organic industry and what he says about the fraudulent practices there seems credible because there are numerous other reports that claim much of what is passed off as organic in America is not really so. In India, on the other hand, we have more organic food produced in the country than is certified (see chart Are we losing the value of organic production? in the second story States opt for the green way ).

Popoff also appears to be strongly biased against organic. Reacting to a recent paper published in Nature where researchers had used comprehensive meta-analysis to examine the relative yield performance of organic and conventional crops and shown that the yield differences are contextual, Popoff rubbishes the study and says that “I will continue to believe what I saw with my own eyes.” Really? How does anyone measure yields with eyes? And across the world?

He claims that yields in organics are just half of what conventional farmers get but does not care to tell us how he arrived at this figure. The claim also makes it puzzling to explain why increasing numbers of farmers are turning organic in the US.

As for organic food being elitist that’s true at the moment, Rajan. The transition to organic production is a costly process for the farmer and he needs to be recompensed. However, prices are high now is because of market economics: growing demand and limited supply. But let’s look ahead. What if the movement against chemical pesticides and fertilisers gains ground as in Andhra Pradesh and millions of farmers turn to organic farming?

What I saw with my own eyes were the harvest records of honest organic farmers. That's what inspectors like me do.

And from this first-hand experience I can report that organic yields are about half what conventional yields are, which is fine because organic farming is NOT about quantity, rather, it's about quality.

Why do you say I'm strongly biased against organic? I support organics. Always have, always will. I grew up on an organic farm.

What I'm dead-set opposed to is fraud and gross negligence, along with any phony marketing campaigns that mislead the public about ANY foods, including but certainly not limited to organic foods.

Finally, a decent article chronicling the organic movement in India. The same trouble faced by small organic farmers here in California is true with small farmers in India- certification cost. Fortunately, with decades of persistence, the organic farmer in California is happier today. Farmers market penetration into urban landscapes was part of the huge shift. As more of them sold their produce directly to the consumers, they gained as the big box retailers gave then pennies on the dollar for their produce. Best wishes to all in the organic movement in India.

In this context I would like to put some hard facts -- In my view point the two greatest criminals of India, Shri. C. Subramayam the then Central Agriculture Minister and Dr. M. S. Swaminathan the then chief of agriculture were responsible for the present day Indian farmersÃ”Ã‡Ã– miseries.

They looked at short term increase in food production with hidden agenda of long term grains to Western MNCs as this technology was tailored to highly subsidize chemical inputs. Like a coin which has tail and head, any technology has both positive and negative aspects. In the adaptation of green revolution technology to India these two looked at positive side Ã”Ã‡Ã´ increasing the food production to meet the immediate needs Ã”Ã‡Ã´ but over looked at the long term consequences of this technology Ã”Ã‡Ã´ negative side Ã”Ã‡Ã´ on environment and humans.

This technology destroyed the environment and human health beyond restoration. This technology destroyed bio-diversity and thus traditional agriculture, which was environment friendly and provide good and healthy food. The green revolution technology is non-environment friendly and bad and unhealthy food. Fortunately, AfricanÃ”Ã‡Ã–s kept this technology away while Asians who sub-serve the West adapted this.

The traditional agriculture technology was a soil and weather driven with animal husbandry forming a major component; while green revolution technology is irrigation and industry driven --chemical inputs & seed. The former benefits the farming community while the later benefits the business community. To improve the economy of farming community, we must reverse our agriculture system and adapt traditional agriculture system that in fact reduces drastically the wasteful expenditure running in to lakhs of crores each year by governments in terms of subsidy and loans that can be better utilized in the building up of rural infrastructure in terms of storage facilities, education, health care, roads/transport, food processing, etc.

Your cover story "Organic Boom" has surpassed my expectations with such wonderful articles. Your wonderful reportage does two things in one go: encourages us ...and helps us grow, organically.
I would like to bring in some more examples of people who are working for organic. They are Sachin Desai, who is promoting organic agriculture and PGS with Nai Talim through his organization, Syamantak- School Without Walls. www.syamantak.org; Ms. Smita Shirodkar, a management professional whose father owns and runs the Murphy electronics producing company. She is promoting organics among the urban Mumbai dwellers.There are plenty of others doing their work happily and silently, like Dr. Sultan Ismail at New College, Chennai; Jayant Barve in Vita-Sangli; Dr. Bharatendu Prakash in Chhatarpur, Bundelkhand [M.P./U.P border], Vikram Rawat in Himachal Pradesh, Anita & Kalyan Paul in Ranikhet; Joy Daniel in Bidkin-Aurangabad; Mary & Bablu Ganguli in Anantpur, Andhra Pradesh; Dr PV Satheesh in Medak, Andhra Pradesh; Mathew John in Kotagiri-Nilgiris; Rony Joseph in Kottayam-Kerala; Dr N Devakumar at the University of Agricultural Science, Bengaluru and plenty of others.

I would like to clarify that I am still a part of OFAI and member of the PGS Organic Council through the Botanical Society of Goa. However, I left the position of "Additional Director" at OFAI Central Secretariat and resigned as Secretary of PGS Organic Concil for the sake of the organizations. Thank you and may your tribe increase and populate the Earth, naturally.

I am really delighted to hear from you. I agree entirely with you that yields should not be the main criterion for measuring the success of organic agriculture – it is, indeed, about quality, not quantity. And yet, I would like to point out that several organic farmers’ groups across India have achieved yields that are comparable with conventional methods of farming which rely on a basket of chemical inputs and synthetic fertilizer. This is particularly true of rain-fed areas where farmers have customarily jettisoned chemical additives because a) they could not afford these and b) it was a waste of money since without irrigation no amount of pesticide and fertilizer inputs helped in situations where the soils are badly degraded. In times of severe weather stress, organic farmers have fared much better and we can provide examples of this. I have not come across any case of suicide by an organic farmer (we have a deplorably high rate of suicides by farmers in India).

I am also delighted that you are a champion of organic farming and am sorry that I misconstrued what you said in response to the study of Verena Seufert, Navin Ramankutty and Jonathan Foley (published in Nature ) as being antagonistic to this method of cultivation. I wish that you could come to India to take the veil off the organized fraud in organic certification. It would certainly help the nascent organic movement here.

Great article Latha & Jyotika, something like this was needed to understand the whole organic food picture of India.
Hope this helps many more people who are part of the hidden organic world ( who sell their organic produce in local markets without any differentiation due to lack of access and logistical and other difficulties) to get access to markets and consumers.

Organic Boom is an introspection on how Organic Agriculture works in India. India's premier institute ICAR has not done any research for promoting organic agriculture and its attitude too seems to be disgusting. The incident described in the story on how ICAR snubs organic is an irony as agriculture is not about technology only.
The authors Latha and Jyotika have done a good job. It would be now more intresting to read on various Organic systems prevalent in different areas of the country which still have to tab market potential. Eg: in my state Meghalaya, largely agriculture is organic but the produce is sold normally in the market.
I would request the authors to do bringin North East India also in picture as the region is still unexplored.

Very informative article. However I have few questions which would help understand the organic opportunity and the growth potential in India as we stand today..
What would be the total size of the domestic organic foods market in India?
Also what would be the share of major players like Morarka(only foods), 24 Letter Mantra in the total pie? What is the distribution model followed by these companies for placement of their products at various retail chains. Does it follow the same model as FMCG companies with a chain of distributors, CNFs, dealers, retailers etc or is it much leaner?

There's no choice but for Organic to grow... we can't just sit around an complain when we read another report on how many chemicals there are in our food or how adulterated our milk is. As consumers we need to raise the alarm and raise the demand for healthy and safe food.
www.esvasa.com works in that direction ... making our readers aware about the what why and wherefore of organic food. Let's hope the organic community supports eachother to increase awareness and health!

I am a student of International hospitality and tourism in London (U.K.). I am going through a research topic "The Sustainability of Organic Food in Luxury Hotels and Their Supply Chain Management Practices. (India)".
Mam, Your research and content have helped me a lot to make and collect data for my research. Thanks a lot for you concern towards ecological and green environment for sustainability. Mam i have some questions in my mind for my research. can i have your precious time and email you for one or two question please.It will help me a lot in my research.

Excellent article on Organic Universe in general and Food in particular.
A 2011 survey by the Organic Trade Association found that more than threequartersÃ”Ã‡Ã¶78 percentÃ”Ã‡Ã¶of U.S. families are buying organic food, up from 73 percent in 2009. Forty percent of families say they are buying more organic food now than they were a year ago.
In 2010, the U.S. organic food and beverage industry grew at a rate of 7.7 percent, posting total sales of $26.7 billion. In comparison, growth in total U.S. food sales stagnated at 0.6 percent. Organic food accounted for four percent of the $673 billion food industry in 2010.
Since 2000, the U.S. organic food industry has grown exponentially. In 2000, organic food sales totaled $6.1 billion and represented a mere 1.2 percent of total food sales. From 2000 to 2010, the organic food industry grew at an average rate of 16.5 percent per year, compared to 3.25 percent average annual growth in the overall food industry.Organic food sales in the U.S. comprise nearly half of global organic food sales.
The global organic market reached $54.9 billion in 2009, more than triple the $18 billion recorded in 2000.In Turkey also interest on Organic Foods is on the increase:
Ã”Ã‡Â£After scandalous news articles about food, people now have more faith in organic products,Ã”Ã‡Ã˜ said Demirci, while Sâ”œâ•merli -- who is also the chairman of the Istanbul-based Organic Product Producers and Industrialists Association -- maintained that the consumer identifies organic foods more and more with health. He quotes the consumers: Ã”Ã‡Â£Yes, organic foods are a little expensive, but we think we do the right thing by spending on food some of the money which we would spend on health in later years.Ã”Ã‡Ã˜ What Uygun Aksoy, professor at Ege University Ã”Ã‡Ã¿s faculty of agriculture, told SundayÃ”Ã‡Ã–s Zaman in connection to this is quite revealing. Ã”Ã‡Â£Should people have major concerns regarding food safety, then organic foods are perceived primarily as healthy foods,Ã”Ã‡Ã˜ she said, confirming that itÃ”Ã‡Ã–s food safety that is at the top of the agenda in Turkey. But in countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark, where food safety is already of a high standard, most people buy organic products to help protect the environment. In big cities, the number of people shopping at organic markets, which are open once a week and where the prices of most vegetables and fruits are only about 20 percent higher than that of the conventional foods, has also increased. Leyla â”œÂ£nlâ”œâ•bay, project coordinator for ecological marketplaces at the â”€â–‘stanbul-based Buâ”€Æ’day Association, told SundayÃ”Ã‡Ã–s Zaman that the number of visitors has increased by 10 to 15 percent in recent months. Like many other people from the organic sector, she also believes this is an indicator of peopleÃ”Ã‡Ã–s increasing awareness about the food they consume.
PeopleÃ”Ã‡Ã–s preference for organic foods is not without merit. In terms of nutrition, apart from being free of chemicals, organic foods have a clear edge over conventional products. Milk contains both omega-3 and omega 6 fatty acids; however, while omega 3 is known to protect blood vessels, omega 6 has a blocking role. Ã”Ã‡Â£In the milk of livestock which feed on grass out in the fields, omega 3 is the dominant element in the fatty acid balance, whereas the opposite is true for livestock kept in industrial farms. So, the fat you get from industrially produced milk has a negative quality to it,Ã”Ã‡Ã˜ Mustafa Kaymakâ”œÂºâ”€â–’, another professor at Ege UniversityÃ”Ã‡Ã–s faculty of agriculture, told SundayÃ”Ã‡Ã–s Zaman.Ã”Ã‡Ã˜(Interest in organic products considerably increases after scandalous food stories, TodayÃ”Ã‡Ã–s Zaman, 13 May 2012 / AYDIN ALBAYRAK, ANKARA).
Here is interesting facts on Organic Vs normal foods:
Answer 1: Nope. A meta study published three years ago in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (July 29, 2009) and discussed in a previous Science 2.0 article arrived at the same conclusion

Question 2: Which type of food is free of organic pesticide residue? Which has levels below permissible levels?

Answer 2: According to the same Stanford group which examined 223 studies involving either pesticides or nutrients, 62% of conventionally grown food and 93% of organically grown fruits and vegetables had no pesticide residues. In almost all cases the levels of pesticides were below permissible levels.

Question 3: Which meats, organic or conventional, are less likely to be contaminated by harmfulE. coli bacteria?

Answer: Neither. The common culprits, regardless of farming methods, were chicken and pork.

Question 4: For organic meat, is there less a possibility that it will be contaminated by at least 3 bacteria types that are resistant to antibiotics?

Answer 4: Yes, 33% less likely, but there are probably no clinical consequences to this, according to the authors.

Question 5: Did the authors find any long term studies of the health benefits of eating organic versus conventionally grown food?

Answer 5: Nope! In the last fourteen years, organic food in the United States has grown from a $3.7 billion to a $24.4 billion business. But the growth has been based on a combination of misinformation (with regard to nutritional content) and a mixture of fear and possibly over cautionary principles (organic food, overall, does have less pesticide residue, but we don't know if the small amounts are actually harmful.),[ Another Meta Study on Organic Foods By Enrico Uva | September 3rd 2012,Science2.0 Join the Revolution].
In India Organic Farming has long history. Here are some Examples:
ORAGANIC AGRICULTURE, please visit this website.http://www.savesanghavi.com/ There are Two persons Mr. Save and Mr. Sanghavi are actively in same business for last 20-25 years, and from Gujarat (Umbergaon Ã”Ã‡Ã´near navsari). They have made almost 7-8 farms after success in 1 farm. You can visit the site and find out more how they did that, they have mentioned everything. They have written one book also in gujarati and English for our farmers based on their experiences and techniques, I request you all to buy that and give it to your village relatives who are active in agriculture business.
*I would like to quote one instance from the bookÃ”Ã‡ÂªÃ”Ã‡ÂªÃ”Ã‡ÂªThey give the weed (Nindaman) from their farm to one dairyman who has some 20-25 cows & buffalos, this continue to almost 4-5 years and one day they changed their mind and refuse the dairyman to give weed from farm. Surprisingly that dairyman asked them to pay any buck for that weed as his cows and buffalos after eating that weeds for years never got ill and become 2-3 times more productive

There are some known myths about organic farming,which are unfounded:1) Myth: Production will be less in organic farming:
Actual: It is totally depend on which techniques you have used, and if production is less in first phase any reason, it will be definitely increased in next lot. We need to also change accordingly and implement the same with experienced person. Here one have to also look at the point that we are getting high quality, at less price; so donÃ”Ã‡Ã–t hope for bumper production in first phase, later on it will be there for sure.
2) Myth: Organic products are very costly in market
Actual: Actually in organic farming the production cost is very much low compared to current ones, but some business minded people in the name of quality make it higher price. We can sell our products at much lower rates ( I have plans to do the same in future).
3) Myth: It uses worms, I donÃ”Ã‡Ã–t like that.
Actual: There are many more optional methods available in organic farming, like cow dung, cow urine, cow ghee, need etc OR you can use save-sanghavi method.
4) I donÃ”Ã‡Ã–t know much about organic farming:
Actual: You can contact near Krishi Kendra or best thing is to visit any of four available Krishi Universities in Gujarat. They will give you all the details. You can also search on internet, there are so many groups, websites, articles which will clear your doubts.
5) There is no big market for Organic Products:
Actual: There is much big market of organic products nationally and internationally, we need to explore little bit more. You can not only focus on organic farming but also on organic horticulture, organic herbal products, you can also use some by products. Main thing is that there is already market available and if it is not there we can create the market, people will surely come for organic as it not use any pesticide and chemical fertilizer.
Now you will definitely ask, if it is so much useful, high yields, high returnsÃ”Ã‡ÂªÃ”Ã‡ÂªÃ”Ã‡ÂªÃ”Ã‡ÂªÃ”Ã‡Âª.why it is not much popular? So to answer this question let us first make some points clear.
Organic farming is our ancient method, there is no question of something totally new, we just forget the same. It is because of some vested interest of some MNC companies, chemical fertiliser companies and bureaucrats they donÃ”Ã‡Ã–t want this thing to happen or known by everyone. There are number of examples where people got really benefited from organic farming.
There is so much information available on internet regarding how organic farming alone can solve IndiaÃ”Ã‡Ã–s food problem, also some technical docs which shows how to make panchjanyamrut which may replace pesticides and fertiliser. You wonÃ”Ã‡Ã–t believe there is cow dung, cow urine trading going on the net.( Organic Agriculture in Detail-The right and ancient way of Agriculture , Himanshu Acharya,DEshGujarat, 7 December, 2009).
In India traditionally natural pesticides were used by our Farmers in the past like neem oil,Tobacco,Tinospora Cardifoila Creeper. Also Annona Squamosa(Custard Apple) seed oil is toxic.
There is the need to revive Organic Farming to reduce pollution and to retain natural fertility of the soil.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
E-mail: Anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com

Your Article on Organic Farming is well researched and highly informative and will undoubtedly benefit the people who are interested tn understanding the immense benefits of Organic farming and its produce and who are fed up with the fruits and vegetables grown out of poisonous chemicals and pesticides. The authors Latha and Jyotika have done a wonderful job. It would be now very fascinating to read on different Organic systems existing in different areas of the country which still have to tap market potential.
I would request the authors to do more areas which are still unexplored. My area of interest in addition to gardening, is to spread knowledge on topics related to health.

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